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In the Dark
I shifted my gaze to my surroundings and could see nothing but the smoke-filled night air and rubble scattered everywhere. In some places bullet holes decorated busted walls, and in other places chewed up corpses lay still in large puddles of blood and rancid water. It was certainly a ghastly sight but the acrid stench in the air was even less tolerable. The air wafted the odor of dozens of dead men and the recognizable scent of burnt powder straight into my lungs. The hellish vision before me almost didn’t seem real. This was, before today that is, a quaint little town full of charming people. Now damn near half of the structures were caved in or slowly burning to the ground whilst filling the air with coal black smoke. A gruff voice called out from behind me “You see anything out there?” I swiveled around to meet the commanding officer’s gaze. I looked at him for a moment trying to review the information I’d just absorbed. As I collected my thoughts I glanced at the large medals on his uniform. He grew impatient and barked “Well, spit it out son!” I was a bit taken back and meekly replied “No signs of movement sir. Just debris and smoke out there as best as I can tell.” The commander nodded in acknowledgement and stood up in a sort of half hunched over position. He walked to the edge of our cover, a still standing wall, and asked another soldier for a scope. The commander was scanning over the ruined landscape before us and I could almost see the level of focus he was exerting by the expression on his face. I looked over at the other soldiers I was sharing this piece of cover with. Everyone here was a stranger to me apart from one fellow by the name of Santori. From what I could infer the other men in our little ragtag group were from other cohorts which had been chewed up as bad or worse than ours. I focused my eyes on Santori trying to study what I could from his reserved demeanor. He was an exceptionally thin man so his uniform looked rather baggy on his small frame. His face was covered in soot as was his helmet. The commander shifted his feet and moved some rubble underneath him when he done so. This caught my attention so I took a quick glance over at him. Just as my head had stopped turning something struck him from afar. In an instant, the side of his head was burst open showering a man sitting close to him with gore. Like a sack of dirt, he collapsed straight to the ground with an audible thud. Everyone shuffled like rats to get behind something sturdy in case any more shots were to come our way. After a rather tense few minutes a couple of the other soldiers began to shift around repositioning either out of comfort or to get a better view of their surroundings. I couldn’t help but look over at the commander but I wished I hadn’t. His brain was half out of the newly formed hole and blood was running along the debris he had been standing on. I didn’t even know who the poor bastard was either; I just knew that he was a higher rank than me and all these other troops. Santori, the thin fellow, crawled from his position up to the commander. Stopping once he was close enough to reach out to the dead man’s neck he felt around near the man’s collarbone. I looked over at Santori and asked “you checking his vitals or something? It’s pretty obvious he’s dead as a doorstop.” He shot me an angered expression and said “Emperor help you Alexi! Show some respect for the dead. I know he’s dead; I’m searching for his identification.” After finally grabbing hold of something, Santori pulled firmly on whatever he’d grabbed a hold of. Holding his hand up as he crawled back I could see the tags in his hand along with a strand of leather which he had just snapped. I looked out at the bodies that were in the streets and let out a shaky breath. We sat in silence for a few minutes listening for a hint of sound and sharing frightened expressions with one another. Something rumbled the ground and in the distance, I could hear the echo of artillery fire. I mumbled to myself “I sure hope that’s ours.” I looked over at the other fellows and spoke up saying “I think we’ve got two options. We can stay here and be wait for the enemy to send a patrol to search this area for more,” I point to the commander who had just been killed “or we can slink away from here and look for others. Maybe even find a way back to one of our strongholds. Thoughts?” I was nervous, terrified even that they might just want to stay right here but that faded as one of the others said, “I refuse to wait here and die.” More gave their thoughts which were of a similar nature and everyone began gathering their rucksacks. As we lined up to get ready to move I discovered I had somehow become the point man. Probably because I opened my stupid mouth and put the idea to leave out there. Santori walked up the line and told me, “I took a head count. We’re nine strong in total. There’s seven of us riflemen and two of the anti-armor boys.” I nodded and with that we set off. We were now leaving the relative safety of our position and running into the darkness of the debris filled streets. There were all sorts of things laying on the ground like rubble, furniture, and body parts. It wasn’t all that long before we came upon an assortment of corpses laying silently in the street. I looked back at the others and told them to search the dead for supplies. I found a body lying face down in a mixture of blood and muck. I nudged it with my foot and then proceeded to roll it over. My eyes met the foul visage of this dead invader. Even in death he had a snarling expression exposing his gnarly teeth. As I knelt to search him I noticed his face had a large brand on it, some sort of weird star. His uniform was hardly worthy of being called a uniform, looked more like a produce sack that had been in the mud for years. His only piece of kit was a bandoleer full of ammunition that was of no use to me. I looked back to the others and saw them collecting rations and magazines off our dead and spitting on our fallen foes. I let the others know it’s time to start moving and we fall back into formation and keep trudging through the ruined city streets. Cautiously we crept from street to street sticking to the shadows, often cutting through buildings to avoid having to be out in the open for too long. Every step we took hit my ears as though a bomb were going off. We kept on our way with no real indication of where we were headed and stopped once we had arrived to what was left of a large building. I signaled the others to halt and knelt to the ground. In a hushed tone I said, “Alright lads, I’m going to find a way to the roof or at least the highest point I can to get a bird’s eye view of the city. I suggest that you guys follow me inside and set up a fire position in case anything comes this way.” The others murmured or nodded in agreement and quietly followed me into the structure. The inside was impressive and bounds more appealing to the eye than the bullet ridden exterior. However, most of the lights inside of the structure were out leaving me to navigate with my night eye. I found a set of stairs leading up to the second floor and looking back I saw my comrades surveying the exterior through the ground floor windows. I made my way up the stairs and then the next set until I arrived at a door that led to the roof. I ever so slowly cracked open the door and peeked as best I could to see if anyone was up here already. To my luck there wasn’t a soul in sight. I walked over to the edge of the roof and peered over the half-wall that lined the perimeter. I could hardly fathom what was happening before me as I observed the city-scape. There were PDF soldiers strung up by their entrails on the sides of buildings and on street lamps, there were monsters that made my skin crawl prowling the streets, and I could see a chapel being looted by gun toting marauders. Under my breath, I said “Emperor’s mercy!” I ran quickly back down the stairs and reported what I saw to my fellows. A rather hardy soldier looked at me and asked, “How far away were they sir?” In a genuine tone I answered, “I’ve no idea…,” I stammered as I looked for his name tape “Peters.” Santori announced to everyone “I think we better find out. Get close enough to observe them, find a way either through them or around them.” I nodded and so did many others. We set forth as quietly as possible, taking great care to remain unheard and unseen. It wasn’t long before we drew close to where our fellow PDF troopers were hung like grotesque ornaments. As we continued underneath them a couple guys in the rear of the squad couldn’t help but gag as the odor of decomposing flesh dominated the air. I put my hand up to signal we should hold position and whispered, “this is where I saw those hellish creatures so keep your eyes peeled.” We went forward at a snail’s pace and after what seemed an eternity came close to the chapel I had spotted earlier. There were a few dead troopers who had their bodies impaled on the large iron fence that surrounded the chapel and a couple more bodies were laying in the street though it looked like something had been feasting on them. I heard voices closing in on us and told everyone to find a place to conceal themselves. I could hear a few voices coming away; some sounded nervous while others sounded almost joyous. The door of the chapel swung open with a creak and a handful of people filtered out. There were a couple thugs escorting two men and a woman outside by gunpoint. The thugs barked out at their prisoners to halt and, with tears and exclamations, their captives did just that. One of the cutthroats took out a blade from his belt and grabbed one of the men. Pulling the sobbing man towards him the brigand took his blade and cut off part of his cheek. I winced as I heard the man cry out in pain. The poor man was hacked on some more while his fellow captives were being tended to by the other brigand. The other thug yelled over the cries of the man being cut and said, “you’re having fun the wrong way pal.” He brought up his rifle and shot the other male prisoner and set his sights on the woman. He yanked on the woman’s robes and set to the other thug, “this is how you have a good time.” I looked over to Santori and said in an angered tone “I can’t fucking watch this.” I readied my weapon and set my sights on the man bothering the woman. I could feel my trigger finger pull back, the take-up, then the snap. The round from my lasgun burned a hole clean through the bastard’s head and he fell on top of the woman. The other thug stopped carving the sobbing man to pieces and looked wholly confused. I stepped out from the shadows and with machine like precision put three shots into his chest. He flung back in an almost exaggerated manner and slammed against the ground. I sprinted over to the chapel and my squad did the same. I directed a couple of men to tend to the woman and I, with a few others, talked with the severely wounded man. He was cut to pieces and I mean that in a literal sense. There were bits of his flesh underneath my boot and elsewhere on the ground. I looked at him as best I could without wanting to wretch and asked, “Would you like some medical attention sir?” Holding his hands over some of his wounds he looked up at me and nodded. I took off my ruck and got out some field bandages. I wrapped the poor sod up as best I could and set him on the curb of the road. I instructed my squad to set up defensive lines on both sides of the street and I knelt to the wounded man’s level. I spoke as gently as I could and asked, “Is there anyone else alive in there?” He nodded no. “When’s the last time you saw some live BT soldiers?” He pointed to the dead men hanging from the light posts. I shook my head and said, “thank you sir.” I stepped up and walked over to Santori. It was visible from his stance and sour demeanor he had something to say to me. He drew closer to me and said in a venom filled whisper, “what in the name of the Emperor was that shit huh? You had no idea how many combatants could’ve been here! There could’ve been five more around the corner, twenty in the church, or, best one of all, you could’ve brought those monstrous beasts here!” I pushed him back a bit with my hand and said in an equally spiteful tone, “what the hell did you want me to do? Let them torture that man some more or defile that poor woman?” He shot a wicked glare at me and said, “You risked my life and everyone else’s life.” With an angered sigh, he walked away. I walked into the chapel and looked around for anything useful. Nothing but pews, stained glass, and statues of Imperial heroes. I made sure no one else was inside the building and made my way up to a large statue of the Emperor with a large aquila behind him. I said my prayers and was deep into thought until I was interrupted. I looked up and saw Peters standing there with something in his hands. He looked at me with concern and said, “everything alright sir?” I replied in a confident tone “everything’s swell. Just catching up on my prayers. You got something there?” He put his hands out to me and said, “I think you might find this useful sir. Found it on one of the dead troopers outside. Looks like it still functions.” I instantly recognized it as one of the field phones that was given to cohort commanders. I looked back to Peters and said, “this is gold. I’m going to try and get a hold of someone.” I fiddled with the device trying every single frequency I could remember until I finally caught a line that wasn’t a dead end. Through the device, a half-distorted voice called out, “hello? Anyone there?” “This is Davidius Alexi, my cohort was caught in an awful firefight and I’m now with an assortment of soldiers from other groups. There are no signs of any living BT soldiers near our position and it seems as though we are behind enemy lines.” The voice cracked over the device, “roger that Alexi. All our forces have retreated to what remains of our strongholds but mainly to the Sanctuary of Light. We have no way of sending forces to extract you as we are being besieged.” “What are me and my guys supposed to do then?” I could hear the man’s voice waver even through the device “Hope the Emperor has mercy on us all.” I looked down to the ground, clutching the device in my hand. I let out a half-sigh and set my eyes on Peters. He’d heard the whole conversation and thusly had a similar expression to the one I now wore. I opened my mouth and almost let out a word when gunshots echoed in the distance. I perked up and listened as closely as I could to the faint din of a firefight. It was far off, but not too far off from our current position. I walked in a quickened pace outside of the chapel and whistled to get the men’s attention. I cleared my throat and said in an authoritative tone “I heard from command; the situation is rather dire. We are going to have to get ourselves out of this mess, no cavalry is coming for us.” From the rear of the gathered soldiers someone spoke up and asked “What are we supposed to do then sir? Sit here?” I shifted my posture and replied, “honestly I think we should get these people to a relatively safe place,” I pointed to the wounded man and the woman “and then head towards those gunshots.” Santori said in a questioning tone, “I can understand getting these folks somewhere safe but what sort of halfcocked idea do you have in mind for us?” I answered in a matter of fact manner and said, “well, we have a sure bet that there are some of our guys engaged in that fight. Couldn’t hurt to regroup with some more friendly forces and, even if they’re dead by the time we get there, we can determine the enemy’s strength in this area.” Santori smugly said, “I don’t think I’ll be doing any of that. I’m going to stay right here and you can run to your death on your own.” A couple other men shared his sentiment and made it clear they weren’t going with me. I shrugged and said “fair enough then. You take care of these people and lay low. Anyone who wants to go with me follow me onwards.” I, along with a couple others who decided to follow, slinked through shadows using the noise of the firefight as a compass of sorts. We made little effort to conceal the sound of our footfall as with each meter we drew closer the din of battle grew louder. It had been maybe a couple city blocks until we’d arrived at the origin of the noise. As we came upon the scene I could see dozens of brigands pelting a garrisoned structure with bullets only to be occasionally met with the thunderous fire of a heavy bolter. I instructed my men to take cover, preferably in an elevated position, and to wait for my signal. I scrambled up a ramp of debris next to the side of a building and found a blown-out window to use as a perch. I let my rifle rest on the window frame and surveyed the area. A group of thugs was advancing forward with a knee mortar and a box of shells. The slammed it to the ground and were readying to bombard the BT troopers inside the building. I whistled to my comrades and made ready to take my shot. I lined my sights up right on the box of mortar shells and let loose a round. With a tremendous roar, and a brilliantly bright wall of light, the shells exploded claiming the crew as well. Nearly half of the enemy soldiers swiveled in response to the explosion and I started firing my rifle into a nearby clump of the bastards. My comrades followed my shots up with a chain of cracks which illuminated our position. We forced a portion of the invaders to reposition and continued to assail them, trying to maintain fire superiority; the combined effort of me and my comrades along with the men in the building was essentially crushing the enemy like a vise. It wasn’t long until we whittled down enough enemy soldiers to allow the heavy bolter to make more effective shots. I was busy reloading my weapon when I peered over my cover and saw four goons get turned to paste by bolter fire. After a few more minutes the sound of gunshots began to fade away until all that could be heard was the moaning of the wounded. I slid down from my cover and hollered over to my comrades, “watch my back.” I crept through the shadows and kept my eyes scanning for movement. I looked over to the garrisoned structure and yelled out, “love the light, live in the dark.” A voice called out from the building “reveal yourself! A motto alone isn’t going to get us to come out!” I stepped out from a bit of cover I was behind and waved my hands above my head. I could hear some fragments of a conversation even from my position. After around thirty seconds the voice called out again, “alright, come over here then.” I signaled my fellows to follow me and they came out of the shadows like phantoms. As we were walking up to the structure a cutthroat hopped out of nowhere with a blade and lunged on me. I was trying to grab ahold of my combat knife while keeping the bastard from carving me up until he suddenly ended his struggle. I tossed the man off me and saw an officer standing around fifteen paces from me with a pistol drawn. He had a very regal appearance even with his uniform sullied from grime and muck. He put his pistol in his holster and walked up to me as I picked myself up off the ground. He extended his hand outwards to me, prompting a handshake, and I followed through with the gesture. Category:Stories Category:Nerio System